Page 36 of Charlie Takes a Chance

“It’s okay if you don’t get it done.” And this time, I mean it as encouraging, but the way she’s staring at me makes me think she’d like to sock me.

“You know what? I take back that back pat I gave you when you were sick.” She glares at me as she lifts the sledgehammer again.

I pretend to gasp. “Oh no, not the back pat!”

Her eyes narrow. “I even rescind my, ‘There, there.’”

I shake my head. “Sorry, once you’ve said, ‘There, there,’ you can’t reverse it.”

Shrugging, I lift my hands as if to saywhat can you do?

Charlie’s lips twitch into a smile. “I hope you realize you’re strange.”

“It’s a condition I’ve practiced for a lot of years.”

She chuckles as she swings the sledgehammer, taking a chunk from the wall.

“That looks cathartic. Mind if I try?” I ask as I step forward.

“You’re still weak from being sick,” she replies with some heavy breathing.

“Maybe you’re out of breath because you’re getting sick,” I shoot back.

“Don’t you dare say that! I am not getting sick. Absolutely not. I don’t have time for that. Besides, I know I wouldn’t get a ‘There, there’ from you.”

I grin. “I guess you’ll never know. Now give me that hammer.”

She eyes me as she clutches the hammer. “What’s in it for me?”

“You can feed the bummer calf tonight.”

She passes the hammer. “Deal. I get to feed Cecil.”

Of course she’s named it. I’m not even remotely surprised. Grasping the hammer handle, I wait for her to look me in theeye. “Iwouldgive you a ‘There, there’ if you were sick. I’d even hold your hair back for you.”

Her jaw drops at that, and I step forward to swing the hammer at the wall. It puts a decent-sized hole in the wall.

“That was pretty good,” Charlie says from behind me. Her arm brushes against mine as she reaches for the hammer. “But let me show you how it’s really done.”

I raise my eyebrows at that and watch as she hefts the hammer with a grin, swinging it in a chopping motion toward the drywall I just broke into. She rips a big hole almost down to the floor.

I scoff and step forward to grab the hammer from her. “You had help because I already started it. Step back.”

“Alrighty, bossy pants.” She laughs and steps back. “I’m waiting,” she says in a singsong voice.

I glance behind me to make sure she’s out of the way then take a big swing at the next section. The hammer crashes through a big section, ripping a large chunk of drywall away from the studs. I bend down, pick up the section, and hold it next to hers. “Yep, it’s bigger.”

“Would you like to get out the measuring tape?” she asks.

I can’t help but laugh.

“How far are we going on this?”

She takes the hammer from me and puts another hole in the wall. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, there’s a good chance you just keep smashing walls around this place.”

“Very funny. This is the only spot. There’s something questionable in this drywall. Like someone caught it on fire.”

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